shaft was unable to make any impression upon the water, several large bore-holes were made through the bottom of the other shaft, then close upon the sand, in order that the united engine power of both pits might be applied. By this means water was drawn at the rate of 4,678 gallons per minute, but no sensible impression was made on the feeders, so that the further progress of the sinking was effectually prevented.

Nothing daunted by the extraordinary difficulties which had presented themselves, the indomitable adventurers determined to redouble their efforts. A third shaft, 16 feet in diameter (being larger than any hitherto sunk), was commenced, and fitted with an unprecedented force of engine power-two pumping engines, and two winding engines, adapted also to pump, being erected upon it. The new pit was pushed forward with all expedition, and in six months was completed to the depth of 73 fathoms.

1

The total engine power now available, in the three shafts, consisted of three pumping engines, and six winding engines; working twenty-seven columns of pumps; and supplied with steam from thirty-nine boilers.

When all preparations had been made, the sinking of all three shafts through the sand was commenced simultaneously. The engines drew 10,000 gallons of water per minute. The scouring action of the sand and water on the buckets and working-barrels greatly

P

impeded the work; the buckets being frequently worn out at the end of two or three hours. For some time the cost of the leather required for buckets amounted to 11. 5s. per hour-three tan-yards being kept in operation to supply it. At length, however, the energy of the adventurers was rewarded by all the shafts being successfully carried down through the sand, and the whole of the water effectually stopped back by cast-iron tubbing. The two original pits were then continued downwards, and on the 15th of April, 1843, the Hutton seam was reached at the depth of 248 fathoms. The cost of this sinking is stated to have been from 250,000l. to 300,000l.; of which 30,000l. was due to the expense incurred in piercing the quicksand. The large shaft, however, afterwards proved invaluable for purposes of ventilation.

A number of other sinkings were carried down through the Magnesian Limestone about the same time; Shotton Colliery was won in 1841; Castle Eden Colliery in 1842; Trimdon Colliery in 1843; followed by other important winnings at Seaham, Ryhope, &c. ; but in none of these cases were the difficulties encountered so formidable as in the sinking at Murton.

CHAPTER XIX.

INVENTION OF CAGES, AND IRON-WIRE ROPES.

FOR a long period after the use of double waterwheels, in raising the coal out of the pits, was superseded by the direct application of the steamengine-in other respects the machinery employed in this work had undergone little or no alteration in the North of England collieries-the coal continued to be drawn to the day in the ancient corf, or basket, made of hazel rods; and the ropes or cables employed, whether round or flat, were invariably made of hemp.

As the pits increased in depth, the size of the corves had been enlarged until they commonly carried five or six cwts. of coal; and iron "bows" had been substituted for wooden ones. It many cases too it had become customary to draw two or three corves at a time, attached to the rope one above the other at short distances apart. But they were still swung loosely up

and down the shafts, and suffered great damage from striking against each other, or against the sides of the pit, in ascending and descending. At times these collisions resulted in the empty corf being carried back again to the surface, perched on the top of the ascending full one. The only improvement in the drawing of the corves consisted in dividing the shaft by a timber brattice throughout its whole length, thus providing separate passages for the ascending and descending loads. This effectually put a stop to direct collisions, but did not alleviate the damage sustained against the sides of the pit.

The use of corves was attended with many other inconveniences. Being high, they were difficult to fill at the hewer's working place. At the junction between the branch railways and the horse roads they required to be lifted from the small trams on to the horse rolley by means of a crane. They were unwieldy to handle, both at the top and bottom of the shaft; they required endless repairs; while the largest quantity of coal that could be drawn by an engine, in twelve hours winding did not exceed 300 tons.

Under the corf system, the arrangements for lowering and raising the men and boys were of the most unsafe and primitive description. Their security depended entirely on the tenacity with which they clung to the rope. The general practice, in ascending and descending, was for two men to sit each with a leg in a loop of

the chain; and frequently five or six boys would cling to the rope, one above another, trusting their lives to their capability of holding fast while the rope traversed a distance of 1,600, or even 1,800 feet. So inured were the boys to this hazardous mode of travelling, that it was regarded by them as "fine fun." Mr. Buddle relates an instance of a little fellow, who, in descending a pit 100 fathoms deep, fell fast asleep on the way, with his arms clasped round the rope, and in this condition was brought back to the top again, when he was pulled off by the banksman, and even then was only awakened by a slap.

Though the ingenious arrangements introduced by Mr. Curr at Sheffield, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, for raising the coal in carriages, were found to answer very well in shallow collieries, they were not sufficiently matured to admit of their application in deep ones. The carriage being suspended at the end of the rope, it was scarcely possible to raise more than one at a time; and the mechanism for landing the load at the surface was somewhat clumsy and tedious.

An improved arrangement had come into use at some of the collieries in the south, where the carriage, instead of being suspended, was drawn sitting on a platform. It appears to have been introduced in connection with the balance-tub system of winding—the carriage sitting on the top of the water cistern. The arrangement was simple and efficient, admitting of 300